Feb 23, 2005 13:26
Capitalism Explained
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.
A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.
ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell two of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows with an option on one more. Sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You redesign them so that they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You re-engineer them so that they live for 100 years, eat once a month and milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You count them and find that you have five cows. You count them again and find that you have 42 cows. You count them again and find that you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.
A HINDU CORPORATION
You have two cows. You worship them.
A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity and arrest the journalist who reported the numbers.
AN ISRAELI CORPORATION
So there are these two Jewish cows. They open a milk factory, an ice cream store and then sell the movie rights. They send their calves to Harvard to become doctors. So who needs people.
A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows. Both are mad...